Lots of people hit the showers early. Well, maybe not the fan who was ejected. My guess is he doesn't shower until he wakes up with his hangover around lunchtime today.

Well, Trevor Hoffman was still around to notch his 600th save and no one had to forfeit, but a lot of dudes got the hook in last night’s Cardinals-Brewers game:

Ken Macha was ejected for arguing when the play was called dead and a run taken off the board after second base umpire Tim Timmons ruled that Craig Counsell slid out of the baseline when trying to break up a double play attempt. Sure looked like the right call to me. Counsell wasn’t anywhere near the bag.

The next inning, Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan was ejected by home plate umpire Bob Davidson for something he said from the dugout. Presumably Davidson’s strike zone had something to do with it and, yeah, you can’t argue balls and strikes, but this one seemed a bit off to me. Either (a) Duncan said something really, really over the line; or (b) Davidson is way too sensitive to criticism. In an ideal world the umps would tune that stuff out, but I suppose it depends on what Duncan said.

Chris Dickerson later got tossed for arguing balls and strikes, though he was on the field at the time — indeed, he was the strikeout victim — so it was a bit more clear cut.

Finally, Davidson ejected a fan for heckling Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina. The guy was later cited for disorderly conduct, which is often code for “dude, you had too many beers and are acting like an ass.” I’ve never understood ballpark drunks, by the way. Beer there costs like $8. If you’re hellbent on getting drunk, you can get a six pack of relatively top-end beer for eight bucks and watch the game in your rumpus room.

Also worth noting that the umps reversed a call on a throw to first that, at first blush, appeared to pull Albert Pujols into the baseline. After the conference, the umps ruled that Pujols didn’t interfere and called the runner safe. Again, looked like the right call, and good for the boys in blue (well, black and gray) for conferring and changing the call.

Davidson’s strike zone seemed wonky, and we can quibble over whether umps should eject pitching coaches for complaining from the dugout, but all in all it was a pretty solid effort on the confrontation front from the umps. In a year with so many examples of bad umpire behavior, you have to consider this something of a victory for reasonableness.

If Counsell had simply stuck out his left hand and even attempted to reach for the bag, it would have been OK. They let guys do that all the time…just have to touch the bag.(Jayson Werth is a freaking genius at doing that…he gets alot of practice getting on first in front of Raul Ibanez) Counsell went in and didn’t even try to touch second, so it looked like the right call to me.

Duncan is developing a tendency/history of constantly yelling at the ump about ball/strike calls, and he seems to be getting more vocal about it….and from the dugout, he really can’t see much. At some point, I do think guys like Duncan need to be tossed so that they’ll tone it down a bit. In this case, with Davidson being overly sensitive, he was the right ump for the job.

If you’ve spent any quality time at Miller Park, you’d know that there’s plenty of quality pregame beer and brats being consumed in the parking lot pre-game. With a good foundation it really doesn’t take a lot of $8 beers to maintain your buzz. I’m curious as to what he was saying to that catcher, though.

Yo, Craig, if you’re in charge of a baseball blog, you ought to be familiar with the game. Calling something that is almost never called, but is technically correct isn’t what I would call getting it right. I know you’re a Reds fan and all that, but think about the blog.